Fallen Valkyrie
by MoodieWarrior
Summary: Nora is alone. What are the chances someone like her can survive the harsh conditions of the Commonwealth. Nate was the soldier. Nate was the survivor. She was just a law graduate when her world ended. But, she must survive. She has to, though it will cost her. Her story will not be pleasant. It will be painful. Surviving is not as easy as a game may make it seem.


Introduction

I love Fallout, and I have played nearly every game that has been released. But Fallout 4 was a disappointment, not because it was a bad game, but because it showed us a world with so much potential that was never fully tapped in to. For this story, I would like to explore some of the potential themes and plots that Bethesda gave us the possibility for, even if they themselves never delved into these possibilities.

The focus of this story will be on Nora, one of the two characters we can choose to play, though we often rename the characters. Unlike Nate, her husband, the post-apocalyptic world is an environment that should be so alien to her. Logically, we can understand how Nate might survive in this world. His military experience and the possibilities for his character to have experienced this type of violence is logically possible. But Nora surviving is a completely different story. It wouldn't have been like that shown to us in the game, just a female version of Nate. Her experience would be different in so many ways.

From what we can gather from the game, she does not have much relevant experience in serving in this world. How does someone who has little if any experience with firearms fair when faced against a raider gang? In essence, this scenario is one that I think we can all relate too. Most of us have none of this experience and most of us would be Nora in this circumstance. I try and imagine how I would survive and this environment, and I know that whether I survived or not, the journey would be hard and terrible.

This is the type of story I would like to tell. It is something I think Bethesda missed out on, to tell how the average person fairs in such harsh realties, and do so in a realistic way where no man is able to achieve the godhood we often see our characters attain in games.

I hope you enjoy.

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Chapter 1: Seeing the Light

She was in that soft state between deep sleep and consciousness. It was comfortable, warm and a place Nora always hated to leave when the concerns of the day pulled her out of her slumber. It had been even more difficult to leave this warm place recently. Law school had been tough. Passing the bar for the New England Commonwealth and been a terror. But bringing a child into this world and caring for it was a new challenge that made the others pale in comparison. In this struggle Nate had been a godsend, even though he was going through a rough transition back into civilian life. Still, so much fell on her.

The thoughts of her family sent tremors through her slowly waking mind. Brief flashes of memory filled with yelling and crying clawed at her. And like a torrent, the memories of what could only be a nightmare came like a flood.

Running. Crying. Soldiers with guns. A giant flash in the distance followed by a long and rolling thunder. Stale cold air that filled a deep tomb. These fragments of a nightmare were horrific for Nora. He blood chilled in her veins and she shivered.

Finally opened her eyes.

With a deep breath she fell to her knees upon a cold, hard floor. He eyes stared at her legs, and the blue vault suit they bore. Then she lifted her gaze. The room was softly lit and small chambers lined the walls. They looked like sarcophagi. But her eyes only rested on the one directly before her. Its small window was dotted with red spots, but nothing else could be seen behind the fog within.

"No." This one word she spoke in barely a whisper. Her eyes were wide and her entire being shook with dread.

Again the fragments from her nightmare penetrated her mind. She quickly tried to push them away. She tried not to see. She tried not to look at the small chamber across from her with the red stained window.

Yet, she could not resist. In a moment of madness she understood that her nightmare _was_ a true nightmare, but it was no dream. She knew what was inside that chamber. What awaited her. But she had to see it for herself. Until she knew for certain then there was hope, and she could use that hope to move forward until it destroyed her.

With shaking legs she slowly came to a stand. She fixed her gaze ahead and began walking toward the chamber. She remembered seeing the chambers operated in what only seemed like minutes before, though she knew a little more time than that had passed.

Her hand refused to stop shaking as she reached out to the lever beside that chamber. She breathed once, then again, and like ripping off a band-aid she yanked the lever down.

Fog hissed out of the chamber as the front split from the rest of the grey metal. Nora stepped back. Her chested ached and her lungs refused to fill with air. Then the chamber finally finished opening, and there, with no glory, was Nate.

Tears flooded from her eyes as she gazed across the few feet between her and her husband. Nate was slumped back against the padded interior of the chamber. The inside, like the small window on the chamber's door, was splashed with red, and the same red pooled at Nate's fit. Where his heart once beat, now there was a hole and as Nora looked into it and through his chest. The sound of a single gunshot echoed in her mind.

But it was not the gore or the blood that shook Nora to her core. No, that effect came solely from his eyes. They were blank, empty. Where there was once an abundance of life, now there was just a dull grey that rejected all as they stared out into empty space.

As Nora stared at his eyes. Every fabric of her being screamed and threatened to tear. She was so close to letting it all go, to fall on the ground and never get up. But, as the echo of the gunshot that killed her husband played in her head, so too did the cries of her son.

Shawn had been taken from Nate. Nate's resistance to this kidnapping had cost him his life, but their son still lived.

It was not hope that spurred to life within her, but it was something that she could grab onto to push through this. Their son, Nate's son, was taken from them. She had to get him. Save him. In him, Nate lived.

But still, the abyss opened by her husband's death yearned to drag her down. But she would not let it. Not yet. Not now.

She stepped up to her husband's corpse and wrapped her arms around his neck. She clung close to him. Like the chamber he rested in, he was cold to the touch.

"I'll be back," she whispered into his ear. "I'll find our son, then I'll be back. I promise."

She kissed him softly on the cheek then she stepped back. She refused to let her eyes fall on him again. She had to focus. Had to stay together. But still the tears fell, and even more so when she finally pulled on the lever once again, only this time the chamber closed.

She knew inside Nate would be safe. She would be back. She would see him again.

Nora composed herself to the best of her ability. She looked around the room and at the other chambers. In what seemed like only minutes before, people had been milling about here alive and well. But as she went from chamber to chamber she realized that each chamber held their own person.

She tried to open the other chambers with their individual levers, like she had Nate's, but they only played a quick error chime and then stubbornly refused to open. But she desperately wanted to see someone else. With a primal urge, she needed one of these people to open their eyes and just be there with her.

Each of the chambers possessed a small terminal. Thankfully they were all unprotected. She had no skill when it came to hacking computers. Any protection would have prevented her from accessing them.

However, by seeing each terminal display she realized she was truly alone in the room as each terminal registered their occupant as deceased. Their eyes would never open.

The loneliness gripped at her, but she pressed on, and left the room into a small hallway that connected to it. Noises in the walls and ceilings, the creaking of pipes and sounds of machinery, gave the vault a haunted feeling. Rust coated a lot of the metal around the vault, and the air tasted old. Stale. Some time had passed since she entered the cold chamber.

Nate was the comic book and science fiction fan, but she had seen and read enough to understand that the chambers were some sort of stasis or cryogenic devices. At least that was her guess. That particular science fiction brought to life would explain why the vault's state had deteriorated seemingly so quickly to her eyes. Though, how much time was the question. Depending on how efficient the vault's environmental systems were, it could have been a few years or far longer since they had witnessed the nuclear holocaust begin. But she wouldn't know until she left the vault.

A loud scratching noise snapped her away from her thoughts. She froze and began looking around for the source. Again, the sound came and this time she recognized it coming from the ventilation above her. The noise continued and moved away from her. Clearly, something was traveling through the ducts above. A rat most likely, and probably not a very pretty one at that. The thought caused her to shiver. She remembered seeing the rats in Boston. They were not pleasant.

She continued through the maze that was the vault. Vault 111, like the other vaults, could each hold over a thousand people, and they were all enormous with a multitude of levels, each with many rooms. She stumbled through a few of the rooms, many loaded with their own freezing chambers. She only checked a few before she realized that like the others, these too were nothing but coffins.

However, some of the dead were not in the chambers. Here and there around the rooms were skeletons, outside of the chambers and some of the freezing chambers were open. Some of the remains laid around in groups, some of them wearing armor with batons near their bones. Others were scattered around in solitude. She wondered if these were the other residents of the vault that had woken up like her, or perhaps they were the remnants of the caretakers, security and doctors that she remembered when she entered the vault. Surely, not everyone would have been frozen away, at least not at the same time. Someone would of had to have been kept awake to monitor the status of the residents. Though, if those here were the caretakers of the vault, sadly it would explain why the vault had become a tomb. But what had killed the caretakers?

Still on the level she woke up on, she moved along the main hallway, peeking into rooms as she went. She wanted out of the vault. Desperately. Like most of the others after stepping off the main lift to from the outside, she had travelled to this level by elevator, but when she found the bank of elevators and pressed the call button, nothing came. The light did not even light up when she pressed the button.

Fear of being stuck deep below the surface threatened to take hold of her, but a map plastered on the wall underneath a faulty light near the elevators prevent fear from taking over just yet. She stepped towards the map. Its details came in flashes as the light above erratically blinked on and off. A large red dot showed her current location, which was on the fifth floor. She let out a sigh of relief as she found a stairwell on the map, conveniently on the others side of the elevators. She studied the map for a few more minutes, taking it all in, at least as much as she could.

She left the map and came to the stairwell's entrance. The door was slightly ajar, and when Nora pressed the button on its side that was suppose to open it, it refused to budge. With her hands she gripped one of the sides, and tried to slide the door apart by force. It budged, but only barely.

"Damn it," she cursed as she stepped back from the door.

Nora began searching for something to help pry the door. She absolutely refused to be stuck in the vault. A few minutes later, her salvation was found. She spied a crowbar hidden under one of the skeleton's that were clustered near her. She awkwardly picked up the tool, careful not to disturb the bones too much. With the crowbar securely in hand, she went back to the door. A few minutes later she was threw and quickly climbed the steps. She gripped the crowbar tightly as she ascended.

Finally, she reached the top door. Beyond it held the exit to the Vault. Desperate excitement toyed with her, but as she tried to open the door, like down below, this one also refused to open. It was not partially ajar like the other one, but she tried the crowbar anyway and hoped to find some leverage. It was to no avail.

She quickly thought back to the map. The Overseer's office was was on the second floor, right below the exit. She made her way back down a level, and thankfully this door opened upon when she pressed the button to its side.

The second level was similar to the last. Rust stained machinery stood beside moulding walls. Skeletons dotted the floor here and there. There were more than down below.

She found the Overseer's office easily enough. Signs were posted on the walls pointing to exactly to its location. She simply followed them to her destination.

But suddenly she stopped, still as could be, as she came around the last corner before she reached the office. Between her and the office entrance stood five… roaches. But they were not normal. Three were the size of small dogs and the other two were only slightly smaller. She could feel bile in her throat at the sight. Then they saw her. Their collective screech surprised her as all five of the creatures charged her. One of the small ones was closest, and it jumped, soared through the air and landed on her leg. Nora yelled as the roach bit through the vault suit and pierced her skin. Blood began to stain around the wound.

Nora kicked the creature off, freeing her leg. She jumped back from it, but in her excitement the crowbar slipped from her hand. The other roaches continued to rush at her. So she ran. And they followed.

She fled back through the level. The creatures did not relent as they scurried close behind. Nora's heart beat like a drum.

Blindly, she took one turn, then another and she dashed into a room.

It was a dead end.

She spun around, hoping to get out in time but the roaches were already there. They did not stop to gloat at their prey. They just charged.

Nora screamed. Wracked with fear with no where to run, she let the fear fuel her. She grabbed a folding chair near her that was sitting at a table and brought it down on one of the large roaches. Its guts exploded and though it twitched, it was dead.

One of the other large ones jumped on her arm, wings appearing to carry it through the air. It bit and blood again spilled from her flesh. But she had to ignore it for only a second as she smashed another of the bugs as it too flew through the air. She turned her attention to the one on her arm and knocked it down. She kicked it like a soccer ball, but it rushed back.

She used the chair and her feet to eventually kill them them, one at a time. A disgusting odor began to fill the room from the dead creatures. It bothered Nora, and when she was sure there were no more of the roaches alive, she left the room.

In the hallway she quickly glanced around for more roaches. Seeing none, she let go of the chair and dropped to the ground. She was bleeding, she hurt, and the adrenaline began to wear off, causing her to shake. She gave herself a moment to collect herself before she stood back up and continued to the Overseer's office. She left the mutant bugs behind.

Nora peeked around the corner slowly and carefully, eying the area between her and the Overseer's office. The coast was clear, so she quickly walked to the door. She pushed the button to the side and the door smoothly slid open. She looked around inside, saw that it was empty and closed the door after she passed through.

When the door slid close, the light disappeared and Nora was plunged into darkness. She held her breath, afraid and frozen, but nothing bumped into her in the dark. She fumbled her fingers next to the door, desperate to find the light switch. She found a bank of them. Hit the first one. Nothing. She hit the next one and some of the lights came to life and illuminated the large office.

In the center of the room was a large desk vaguely in the shape of a crescent moon. A rusted computer sat on top, the command line growing green ready for an entry. However, her eyes fixated on the pistol sitting on the desk beside the computer. She rushed over to it, and held it in her hands.

She inspected it carefully as she held its solid weight. It looked like a 10mm, but she couldn't be sure. She had never bothered to learn much about firearms, the exception being the rifle her grandfather had given to her when she was ten. She had been a good shot, but as she held the pistol in her hand, that felt like a long time ago.

But the weight in her hands presented to her a new possibility: that she might actually have to use it, and not on cans like she had when she was a kid. The thought terrified her. But then she thought of Nate and Shaun. And the man. That bald man with a scar on his face that had taken her family from her. She held the gun firmly. If he was here in front of her right now, she would fire the weapon without hesitation. At least, that's what she told herself she would do.

She played with the gun for a few minutes, careful to keep her finger from touching the trigger. She found the safety, and figured out how to eject the clip, which itself was full. There was a box of ammunition next to where the gun had been, but she had no way to carry it outside of her hands and her vault suit did not have any pockets. Not wanting to leaving the ammunition behind, she began to search the room for a bag of any sort.

She started going through the desk, and in the first drawer found four stimpacks. Immediately, the pain from the bites in her arm and leg began pulsating, no longer forgotten. She pulled out one of the stimpacks. She had never used one before, but she had bought a few for their home's first-aid kit and she had seen instructional manuals on how to apply them.

The cap to the stimpack popped off easily enough. They weren't suppose to expire and all of them looked safe to use. No cracks or rust on the needle. Nora nervously held the stimpack ready to use. She knew what to do: stab the needle directly in the wound. She was terrified of getting an infection in this environment and she had no idea how far away the nearest doctor was, if there were any doctors anymore. So she held her breath and jabbed it into the wound on her leg and then pressed down the plunger.

A cool sensation slithered around the wound, but it immediately began feeling better. She could almost see the wound knitting up, but maybe she was just imagining it. Regardless, she repeated the same process with the wound on her arm. The then continued to search for a bag.

The desk yielding nothing else of use. There were only a few bobby pins, glue and other miscellaneous items, so she moved on. Connected to the office was a small bathroom and personal quarters. Surprisingly, right on the couch in the living area was a small backpack. She strapped it on, and then continuing searching.

She returned to the desk a few minutes later having found a few meds and ammo which she put in the bag. The only thing she had not been able to access was a caged storage locker to the far side of the room. It's lock looked simply, but she had no idea how to unlock it and could not find a key.

When she finished putting the ammo and stimpacks from the desk into the bag, she sat down on the worn chair at the Overseer's terminal. Immediately, the computer asked for a password and Nora cursed softly.

She had no idea what the password could be, and completely lacked the ability to get around such an obstacle. She thought briefly of Nate. He could have done this. This is what he did in the army, going behind enemy lines, hacking computer and picking locks. Killing people.

She turned her focus from thinking about Nate. He wasn't here. Only her.

Something clicked in her mind and she begin to frantically go through the drawers of the desk once again. In one of them, far in the back, was a small notebook. It faded cover was stamped with the Vault-tec logo. She dared to hope, and as she opened it her hope was rewarded. A little note with what looked like a password was scribbled within. She typed the series of characters into the entry field and the computer accepted it with a satisfying flash. Nora sighed with relief, thankful the Overseer had been forgetful.

She began going through what the computer had to offer. The first thing she accessed was a series of journal entries from the Overseer. No all-clear. A mutiny and ensuing power struggle. Weapons and food ordered to be handed over. As to what ultimately happened, the logs did not say, but whatever had happened hadn't been pleasant. The corpses dotted around the vault were evidence of that.

She continued through the various possibilities the terminal offered. She wanted to find something that would let her open the door to the main level, but there was nothing of use, or at least nothing that she recognized as useful. Until, that is, she landed on one command. It was suppose to access a passageway from the Overseer's office to the main level. She hesitated at first, but then pressed the select key on the old keyboard.

A grinding noise came to life in the room and Nora jumped, but quickly saw that a door, previously hidden in the wall, began to open on the far side of the room.

She made sure she had everything she knew to take, including the crowbar which she quickly added last to the bag, and slung the pack onto her back. With the gun firmly in her hand, she passed through the entry way into the passageway. The passageway was only a short distance before it quickly came to a narrow set of stairs. She climbed, two steps at a time. At the top was a heavy door. It did not have an electrical release like the others, but had to be manually unlocked, which required Nora to spend a long few seconds turning a rusty wheel before the door finally swung open.

She found herself in a small room and stepped away from the door which swung to a close behind her. Looking back, if she had not have known it was there, it blended in so well with the wall she would have missed it.

The room was filled with humming machines, computers of some sort. She had no idea what they did or if they would be useful, so she left. She was feeling the confident for the first time since waking up.

The small room emptied into a larger one, and there at the center of the far wall was a giant gear of a door. Chipped yellow paint displayed 111. This was her exit. The very door she had passed through to enter the tomb an unknown time ago.

On the platform next to a retracted catwalk, which bridged the gap once the door was opened, stood a lone console. It, if she remembered corrected, would allow her to open the vault door. If it would open. But as she approached the platform and console, she heard a familiar sound from underneath a pile of bones and tattered clothes next in the center of the platform.

The bones of the deceased moved suddenly, and two roaches jumped from the dead and landed a few yards from Nora. She jumped back, and as the roaches began their hectic approach, she fired her pistol.

She pulled the trigger once, twice, again and again, but the roaches kept coming. Every shot missed. She walked back as she fired, but then she stumbled against the wall behind her. The gun clicked dry, and refused to fire again. Terror gripped her.

Nora tried to grab the crow bar, but she wasn't quick enough. The roaches jumped into the air. The thin wings propelled them towards her. Without a second to spare, Nora gripped the straps of her bag and swung it towards the roaches. She landed a solid hit and the bugs flew off the the left. She had earned herself a few precious seconds, and she did not let them go to waste.

She ripped the crowbar free and lunged toward the roaches. She showed no mercy for the bugs, and with loud fury she battered the creatures until they twitched for the final time. They had met death.

Breathing hard, she gathered the bag and the gun, taking a moment to slowly refill the empty clip. Ready to go again and significantly calmer, she made her way to the platform, eager to get out of the roach infested tomb.

But the platform brought no elation. She stared down at the control console. She cursed softly. She vividly remembered the television commercials that showcased the vaults. Some of the equipment in the vaults needed one of those Pip-Boys to activate their functions. This console was one of those. If she wanted to continue, she needed a pip-boy.

She carefully looked towards the corpse next to her. Entering the vault, she had remembered the the vault personnel wearing the devices. And sure enough, one of the skeletons in the pile sported one. She put down her pack and lifted up the pip-boy. An arm bone came up with it but quickly fell to the ground and released a small cloud of white dust as it hit the cold metal floor.

"Okay," said Nora to herself hopefully. "Let's see if this thing still works."Briefly, she fondly remembered when her Nate toured the demonstration vault in the Museum of Technology soon after they had found out she was pregnant. The Mall had been so beautiful that day. On the tour they had been given a presentation for how the pip-boys worked. She remembered that the ones they showed at the museum had featured a biometric lock, which could present a challenge to her as she held the dusty device in her hands. However, this one looked different than those used during the demonstration.

And different it was. With a satisfying click, she secured the device around her left forearm. She triggered the power, and the device came to life. It booted up as though it was its first time doing so. Maybe the previous owner had acquired it fresh, straight from the box. Or maybe they had reset it after acquiring it from someone else. Regardless, when the device finished booting it displayed a wealth of information, from her health, geiger reading and other fun facts. She was thankful the device worked. For a short time, she continued to inspect it and carefully looked through everything the technological marvel had to offer.

But finally, it was time leave the tomb. She pulled the key out of the pip-boy. It was attached by a wire so she would have a tough time losing it. Key in hand, she flipped the panel covering the locking mechanism on the console that controlled the vault door. She gingerly inserted the key, and turned it.

Lights began flashing as an alarm came to life and blared loudly. Gears started turning and soon, the door began to open. When it was fully open, the catwalk extended to allow here the desiring so to pass from the platform to the other side of the door. She quickly walked over it.

And there she was. It seemed like only moments ago when she had descended into the entrance chamber. They had just seen a bomb go off near Boston. In that instant so many were dead. But her, Nate and Shaun had made it. _They_ were alive! But now, they had tasted a part of the horror that all those left out of the vaults had experienced.

She pushed the call button for the large lift and it's gears grinded harshly as it made its way down. But finally, it stilled in front of her, and its gate opened up. She stepped inside and pressed the button.

 _The world had died._

These are the words she thought had she looked around from the vault entrance. Everything around here was once so green, but now the world was colored with death. No vibrant green leaves. No birds chirping. No grass. Unnervingly, the only thing that was green was what looked like a storm far in distance. Right where she had seen the bomb strike.

Through, it was not just nature that had been ruined, but the forests of man as well. In the distance the remains of towns and cities stood in decay. To her eyes with a great distance between her and them, they looked old. So old. Not for the first time the thought of how long she had been on ice crossed her mind. As her mind stumbled across the word centuries, her body shivered.

The only thing that looked normal was the bright blue sky. Fluffy white clouds hung in the air. It seemed wrong to have something so beautiful, so pristine, present. It seemed to betray this ruined world. The green storm in the distance seemed more appropriate.

She took in the sight once more. A small stream of tears found its way down her cheeks. So many dead. So much suffering. She knew that when the bombs dropped, the lucky ones were those that died in the initial blasts. It was the ones that were left to die slow and agonizing deaths that knew true suffering. That fate has always been what terrified in the event of nuclear war. And now here she was. Would she be like those left after the bombs? Stuck in a new world and destined to die slowly?

Slowly and carefully she made here way down the hill along a narrow trail that led to Sanctuary Hills. The path to her home. It was the same trail that had run up when news came on the television about the opening strikes. She could see bones sticking up from the soil. She was sure that if they still possessed their flesh she would have recognized some of them.

She stepped onto the main road in Sanctuary Hills. When they moved in there were dozens of new homes when new families dwelling within. Now, those houses were only hollow skeletons or fallen piles of rubbles.

She continued downed the ruined road and finally, there she was. She stood in front of a house that to her had so recently been in such pristine condition. But now holes littered the walls and roof. The walls that were once bright blue were now dingy and covered with dead vines that seeped into the old holes. The windows were smashed. Debris littered the yard. It was just another one of the corpses left behind in Sanctuary Hills.

Slowly, she approached the front door. It was closed tight, and she reached out to the handle. Her hand shook slightly as she gripped it. With a bit of force, she pushed it open. Sadly, the destruction of the outside was merely a reflection of what dwelled within.

For Nora, this was even more jarring. What few possession they had barely remained. The pictures that lined the walls were ruined. The fabric on the couches and chairs and long deteriorated away. Leaves, animal waste and other trash covered the filthy floor. Nothing was left untouched.

And in the center of what once was the living room was Codsworth. She remembered the Mister Handy unit when they first unpacked him. The domestic robot had been a sight to behold. A spherical body with three mechanical eyes that could see so much at once and three arms that could wield a variety of tools. The robot had gotten to work immediately when he was activated. The soft sound of the thruster attached to the sphere's undercarriage was somewhat comforting as the machine floated around the new home. Codsworth's metal body had been so bright, so polished.

Now, it was rusted and broken. Crumpled on the floor. Covered in debris. A few bullet holes marked its casing.

And then the dead creature stirred.

"Mistress Nora?" creaked a a weak accented voice from the fallen machine. "Is it really you?"

One of the robot's eyes moved up, propelled by the two small arms that attached the bulbous mechanical eye to the rusted spherical body. The lens was scratched and clouded. The other two eyes did not move.

Nora bent down next to her old servant. "It's me, Codsworth. What… What happened to you?"

"Unlike you and Master Nate, I'm afraid time has been a cruel mistress."

She asked the question that had been on her mind since she woke up in the vault. "Codsworth, how much time has it been since… since we left home for the vault?"

"My equipment is not as good as it once was," started Codsworth. "But it has been over two-hundred years since you all fled."

 _Two-hundred years?_ The thought raced through her mind.

"If I may ask, ma'am, where are Master Nate and young Shaun?"

Nora's breath caught in her throat. Seconds passed in agony as she struggled to get the words to escape her lips.

"Nate.. Nate's dead, Codsworth. Some people killed him in the vault. And they took Shaun." Fury began to rise within her at the memory. "They took our son!"

Codsworth's eye sank slightly as though the machine could felt true sorrow. Nora did not remember the machines being programmed to do such imitations.

"I remember there being a few people in Concord some years ago," said Concord. "Maybe they will be able to help you. I'm afraid that in my current state, I won't be able to render much aid."

Nora rested her hand on the robot. "How long have you been like this.

"Close to fifty years. In the beginning, after the bombs fell, there were a few people left and other units here to help. But the people either left or didn't make it as time went on. Us Mister Handys put up the good fight and tried to keep our homes and neighborhood in working order, each waiting for our masters to return. But, while we were able to keep ourselves in good repair during normal circumstances, trespassers slowly undid one by one. Then I was all that was left. Fifty years ago, some trespassers got the better of me. There was nothing I could do for repairs, so I guess I finally decided to settle down." The robot gave a weak chuckle.

"I'm sorry, Codsworth," said Nora earnestly.

"Don't be, ma'am. I certainly am not. My only regret is that I am not better able to serve you now. Not in my state."

"Well, maybe I can find someone that can repair you." There was hope in her voice.

"I would like that very much, ma'am."

Codsworth's eye quickly flicked to the away, to what Nora thought was the north-east.

"It seems there is a storm approaching, ma'am. I advice you take shelter. These storms can be quite nasty, with their radiation clouds and all."

Nora look up and then around her as fear of radiation poisoning played with her mind.

"I don't think our house will be the best for that," she said noting its poor condition.

"Quite right, ma'am. If you recall, Mister and Missus Miller's home possessed a lovely cellar. It should provide ample protection from the storm and I took the liberty to stock it with supplies before I settled down. I advise you to head over there quickly and bunker down."

"Will you be okay here, Codsworth?" she asked.

"Oh yes, I will be fine. These storms are quite common and they haven't managed to get the best of me yet."

Nora smiled at his display of bravado. She told him she would be back after the storm and then left her house.

In the distance, dark green clouds moving towards her with terrifying speed as they enveloped the land beneath them. She quickly hurried toward the Miller's house. Like many of the other houses in the remains of the neighborhood, this once had fallen down.

The Miller's were the first neighbors that her and Nate had gotten to known. Like out of a movie, on the day her and Nate moved in, they had come over with tray of baked goods and welcomed them to the neighborhood. Later, when they visited their house for a neighborhood barbecue, Gary Miller had shown them their cellar, which he had constructed when they had bought the house. He said would also double as a fallout shelter and could survive being close to a direct hit.

As she moved to the back of the house where she remembered the entrance to the cellar being located, she remembered seeing the Millers frantically packing car as her, Nate and Shaun rant to the Vault. She soon found the door leading to the cellar and climbed down. Unlike the house and most likely the Millers themselves, the cellar had survived.

Canned food, long past its expiration date, supplies, ammo and even a few guns filled the interior in a very organized, Codsworth-like, fashion. Two small bed, on held above the other like children's bunkbeds, were bare and covered with dust. But for Nora, the old mattress was more comfortable than anything she could remember.

As the thunder sounded above, she let herself fall into a deep sleep.

Concord was in ruins. For Nora, this should not have been a surprise to see. Not after Sanctuary Hills. But she remember such a charming town. Now it was just a ruin.

And somewhere deep within this ruin, a battle raged. Nora could hear gun fire. To her ears it sounded like a like a lot of guns. Every once in a while an explosion would go off and smoke would rise into the air. The sounds filled her with dread.

 _So much for getting help from there. But still, at least their are survivors. That's a good thing, right?_

Another explosion sounded.

She was on a broken road on a hill outside of the town where she could overlook the broken down buildings. But those buildings blocked her view of the town's centers where she heard the sounds of gunfire echo from. She remembered there being a museum there. She wondered if it still stood.

Regardless she was not going anywhere near Concord now.

For the millionth time, she wished Nate was here, or even that dog she had briefly seen at the gas station before it ran off. This was Nate's environment. He was the soldier. She was the law graduate. She should be the one here.

Something moved behind her. Her blood froze. Her breath caught in her throat. Her grip around the 10mm pistol in her hands tightened.

She turned around and gasped. A mosquito as large as dog with a wingspan longer than any man hovered in the air directly in front of her. Its slender brown body blended easily with the terrain around, but it was grotesque. Its two large eyes were fixed on her.

She didn't think. She reacted. She pulled the gun up and pulled the trigger once, twice, and then some odd times more. A familiar scene to her time in the vault. Bullet after bullet whizzed by the creature as it began to close the distance. Then she finally hit it.

It was only on one of the creature's six legs, but it was enough to stagger it. Nora lowered her pistol and ran down the road.

Six steps later she stilled to a stop as two more of the creatures appeared before her. Blood on each of their proboscises. She heard the fluttering of the one she had shot behind her as it moved closer. She had no choice, for it had already been made for her.

She dashed towards Concord. She no longer cared about the gunfire deep within the town. She only cared about getting away from these monsters. She fixed her eyes on a rundown house that had a door slightly ajar. She dared not look back at the creatures, but she could hear their wings as they followed. Something wet hit the the ground next to her. Then again. It came from behind. From the monsters. It was a sickening red color, like bad blood. She screamed.

And with that scream she ran faster. The terror gave her energy; let her devote herself fully to the flight.

The house had a porch. Three rickety steps led to the top and to the door. In one jump she leapt over them and landed firmly on the wooden porch. The rotten boards threaten to give away at her feet. She threw herself into the door, through the doorway, and then turned sharply around and slammed the door just as the monsters came to the porch. The door vibrated as sickening wet sounds came from the other side. The spit of the monsters hitting the door.

Nora breathed heavily. It was hard for her to catch her breath. She had never been so scared. But now she began to worry about what to do next. She could hear the monsters outside. The closed door and boarded up windows protected her in this rooms, but she had not idea if there were other ways into the house. She would be in trouble if the found a way in.

The wood of the door splintered right beside her head. The long proboscis of one of the monsters was sticking through only inches from her head.

 _They won't need to find another way in if they can make one for themselves!_

She scrambled from the door. She could not stay here. She had to flee!

She ran to the back of the house and into the remains of a kitchen. Dishes lined the counters and empty cans littered the floor. But her eyes were reserved for the solid wooden door at the far end. She jumped to it and flung it open. She met the outside world again and flew into it, through the back road and over a fallen fence.

She found herself on a narrow road among a good few ruined houses on the outskirts of Concord. She looked back. The bugs were not following. Not yet. She looked around. She desperately needed somewhere to hide. A safe place to run to. But she had no clue where to choose. Gunfire rang in the background.

She decided to circle around some of the houses and get out of Concord. Then she would decided where to go next.

There was a small click to her right.

"Don't move, girl," threatened a voice.

But Nora did move, if only her head, to see who was speaking.

A lone man stepped from the shadows from between two of the nearby houses. His tan skin was covered in grime. Worn leather clothes covered some of his body, but most of his chest was bare. A frayed orange hat covered his head. Dirty brown hair poked out from underneath.

His smile of black and yellow teeth beamed at her. His eyes darted between her and their surroundings, but his shoddy looking rifle was firmly held on her.

"You move and you die, girl," threatened the man again as he walked her. A hunger burned in his eyes.

She thought the creatures chasing her had been monsters. Looking at this man, she knew those bugs did not deserve the title.

Gunshots rang into the air from the other side of the house she had ran out of. Where the bugs were. Soon, two more people, one woman and one man, each equally as dirty as the first, stepped around the house together.

"I guess you were right," said the woman to the first man. "There was someone here."

She eyed Nora. Her gaze was worse than the man pointing the gun at her.

"I told you I heard someone shooting," said the main with the gun on her. His attention was still firmly on Nora. "Now drop the pistol, girl."

Nora had no real choice. Not if she wanted to live. That she knew. She carefully put the gun on the ground. The dirty woman picked it up and then began walking deeper into Concord followed quickly by the other man.

"You follow them nice and close, now," said the man with the gun. "Do anything funny, and well, it won't be pleasant for you." He barked a quick laugh. The other two quickly joined in.

Nora's heart thundered in her chest, but she did as she was told.

Bodies littered the ground in front of the museum that sat at the center of Concord. Many of those those were dressed like the people that captured Nora. But a few were dressed differently. They were dressed in an old colonial fashion, like what you would see in a history book, or even on a mannequin within the museum. Strange rifles laid by their fallen sides.

Nora's knees ached as she kneeled on the rough concrete a ways from the museum. Her hands were bound behind her with rough rope and the man that had captured her stood proudly at her side. He eagerly looked down on his accomplishment, only breaking his gaze when some new bout of gunfire broke out.

The men and women in the leather outfits were sieging the rundown museum. From the windows inside some people fired back. Bullets and energy bolts rang into the air.

A woman in leather stepped out from cover. From her hand she threw a flaming bottle towards the building. The bottle broke and fire began to spread along the wall. Inside, Nora could hear people start to yell.

The old wood of the building caught fire easily. The attackers sat in their cover and watched the flames engulf the building. But one of the attackers went over to the woman that had thrown the firebomb. Nora watched him raise his hand and form a fist. He struck the woman to the ground. Then he yelled at her. Then he kicked her a few times before letting her be. Slowly the woman got up and carefully held her side as she stood.

Some of the defenders began to try and escape as the flames engulfed more of the building. One here. Another there. Nora closed her eyes as they were shot down by the attackers.

But finally, when the building looked like it was about to completely crumble and flames lashed into the air, a group of six men and women bursted through the side of the building, right through a wall.

The group ran as it fired at the attackers. They were led by a man sporting one of those colonial uniforms, though slightly different from the rest. Smoke from the fire dirtied his brown skin and uniform. His hat flew off of his head, caught by a gust of wind, as he fired his rifle at the attackers.

A shot, heard above the rest, sounded from a gun near her. The man in the uniform fell to the ground. There was a red hold in his stomach. He twitched once, then twice until finally no more.

Some of those he was defending fell soon after him until there were only two left. Two women. One old. One middle-aged. Both were covered in grime and both held pistols in their hands.

The two women tried to fire their guns, but both pistols were dry. Nora watched as the attackers surrounded them and then forced the women down to the ground. The women struggled, but they were no match.

Eventually the two captured women were bound and put next to Nora. The middle-aged woman wept. The old woman was silent.

A man dressed in leather and metal stepped before the three women. The white of his mohawk contrasted with this deeply tan skin.

"Well, it seems like we found ourselves some good loot."

He bent down, and grabbed the old women by the chin.

"And Jared will be very happy to see you, granny," he said as he smiled. He looked Nora up and down. "And a vault-dweller too. How lucky we are."

The middle-aged women muttered something. Nora nor any of the others heard what she said.

"What did you say, dear?" asked the man with the mohawk. "Is there something you would like to tell me."

There was danger in his eyes. The woman only looked at the ground. But then she met his gaze.

"You bastards killed Jun!" she shouted. "You goddamn raiders! I'll see you all in hell!"

Nora jumped as blood suddenly erupted from the woman's mouth. Like the bugs that had chased Nora, the woman spit a lob of blood at the man with the mohawk. It hit him in the face. Droplets of blood fell to the ground. But something else fell with them.

Nora stared at the lump of flesh that now sat on the ground. With horror, she realized it was the woman's tongue. She looked back at the woman. Blood continued to stream from her mouth. The bleeding woman became pale, then slumped to the ground.

Those around her could only watch as the woman died. The old woman right next to her was still quite, but tears made their way down her face.

The man with the mohawk looked down at the bitten off tongue. He shrugged then turned to some of those near him.

"Take these two back to Jared," he ordered. "And make sure this doesn't happen again."

From behind someone grabbed Nora's mouth. Dirty fingers pried it open and a filthy bit of cloth was stuffed inside before a gag was placed over her lips. She struggled but could do nothing. The old woman next to her had the same done to her.

She was pulled to her feet and forced to move along with the rest. As she stumbled along, she looked at the devastation that littered Concord. The attackers were looting the fallen, their friends and foes.

She had seen the light this ruined world had to offer, and it burned.

As she was led further from the town, a chilling roar echoed from behind.

* * *

And so ends the first chapter. This is my first story so I hoped you all enjoyed it. Please feel free to leave a review or even send a PM if would like to discuss something, even if it is to point out errors!  
I look forward to uploading another chapter sometime soon!

-Taylor.


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